Time Management Means Managing Our Expectations

Whether travelling back to the future, taking a walk along the time tunnel or just relaxing in a hot tub time machine, Americans have long been fascinated with time. Even during the holiday season, when the workday routine is replaced with festive celebrations with family and friends, we still can’t stop thinking about the year about to end and one yet to begin. In fact, we are so obsessed with time that it permeates our popular culture.

We wish for time in a bottle and want what we want in a timely fashion. While time will tell what is to come, time also waits for no man. For some, there’s no time like the present and others have too much time on their hands. Or they just do the time warp again.

With the clock ticking on the year, many pause to consider the lessons of the past 12 months and set a course for the next dozen. But the year doesn’t end for everyone at the same time.

For most the end of December ushers in a new calendar year. But for some business owners and public entities, the new year began in October with the start of the fiscal year. For students and teachers, the holiday season marks the middle of the academic year and for others it is just another day in the lunar year.

On Wall Street, it doesn’t matter how a year is measured, only the next three months matter. Quarterly earnings reports have become an all-too-convenient shorthand for the state of the economy for many. Investors and analysts pore over every 10Q filing while economists and the business media parse every line looking for clues to the financial future.

It doesn’t get any better in Washington, D.C. with a monthly parade of unemployment releases, consumer spending reports and all manner of economic, demographic and financial filings. And that healing helping of statistical bliss will attract commentary, criticism and conversation like a swarm of moths to a flame.

But how much can we really know about the economy in a month? Or three months? Even the annual reports being feverishly produced in offices around the country can only give us a snapshot of what is going on – or more accurately, what already happened. While not without some redeeming merit in recapping the past 12 months of economic activity, they are not crystal balls that will reveal the future path of anything.

In a competitive global marketplace, there will always be a premium placed on the here and now. What-have-you-done-for-me-lately has been replaced by What-are-you-doing-next and the cycle begins anew.

But maybe the end of the year is the time to take a step back and not only reflect on the successes and failures of the last dozen months but realize that a longer view of things could make everything a little clearer. It will require a recalibration of our relationship with the clock and a willingness to adjust the rhythm of our lives and calendars. If that happens, maybe, just maybe, the times, they really are a changing.